Saxophonist Grady Nichols will make his Autumn Jazz concert debut at 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, 111 E. First Street (Upper Level), in Tulsa. Performing with Nichols is his outstanding band, with guest vocalist, Krista Branch, of American Idol fame.
Tickets are $15 adults; $10 seniors, Jazz Hall Members and College Students; and $5 students older than 12 years old. Attendees can purchase tickets at the door
or call the Jazz Hall to make table seating reservations ($20 each). Call on/before Friday each week by 5pm at (918) 281-8609.
There is free parking in the Grand Central Parking Lot (across from the entrance
of the Jazz Depot).
Category: jazz
Mark Temple, board president of the Liberated Arts Center (BLAC) Inc., appointed Orville Prince as chairman of the 2010 Charlie Christian International Music Festival. The festival is scheduled to be held in early June 2010.
Soul Bowl Party in the Park kicks off the beginning a serious effort to fund a memorable experience for the 25th year of the festival.
“The idea behind the Soul Bowl Party in the Park is to give the community an opportunity to come together in a fun filled evening of hearing great music and seeing new talent as they enter into a little friendly competition in a T-Shirt contest that will benefit some high school in the area,” Prince said. “At the same time, it should be fun to see folks display their pride in their alma maters.
“I think the community is ready for this event. In fact, if we are as successful as we think, we will make it an annual event,” he concluded.
Temple indicated that in an act of strengthening the organization, several new board members will be seated in October prior to Oct. 18’s Ailey II performance at Rose State Performing Arts Center.
“We expect a big year for BLAC, Inc.,” Temple said. “In fact, it is exciting to me that so many people are coming forward asking to be involved with BLAC. It is amazing to me that in 2010, BLAC, Inc. will celebrate 40 years, the festival will celebrate 25 years, and we will celebrate 15 years of being a partner in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education Program. There is no doubt it will be a year of celebration.”
For more information about BLAC, Inc. and its activities, call (405) 524-3800.
Mack Avenue label imprint Sly Dog Records has released seven titles by Kenny Rankin (who died in Los Angeles from lung cancer on June 7, 2009 at 69) for download and the titles will be available by compact disc at popular retailers on Nov. 3, 2009.
The following titles are “Mind-Dusters,” “Family,” “Like a Seed,” “Silver Morning,” “Inside,” “The Kenny Rankin Album,” and “After The Roses.” All seven CDs will be available at online digital sellers (iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc.).
Rankin, who grew up in New York City, came into the larger public consciousness in the early 1970s. It was the era of the singer-songwriter, and although he fit the profile, Rankin transcended that genre. Rankin brought a finely tuned sophistication and a capacity for a surprising variety of musical expression to contemporary pop music.
absorbed the many forms of music around him like a sponge. He sang a cappella in the hallways of the same neighborhood that Dion DiMucci and Teddy Randazzo lived in. It would be no surprise to his old friends when doo-wop elements surfaced later in songs such as “Roll-A-Round” on the “Inside” album.
A Greenwich Village apprenticeship brought Rankin into contact with producer Tom Wilson in 1965. At Wilson’s invitation, Rankin played rhythm guitar on “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Maggie’s Farm” for Bob Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home.”
BLAC (Black Liberated Arts Center) Inc. will host Soul Bowl Party in the Park from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12. at Washington Park, located at Northeast Fourth and High Streets in Oklahoma City.
The event will feature new musical artists on the Discovery stage. Among those local talents scheduled to appear are Born in November, Lil Dezzy, Roderick Pugh and jazz vocalist Miss Muffy. Miss Muffy is the granddaughter of the late, legendary bandleader Leslie Sheffield.
“Our community has been asking over the years for BLAC, Inc. to showcase new talent, and we see this event as the perfect opportunity to introduce new faces in a relaxed setting,” Anita Arnold, executive director of BLAC Inc. said. “Washington Park is special in the hearts and minds of many in the city because of the wonderful historic significance and pleasant memories of the past.”
According to Arnold, there will be an area High School T-shirt competition. The high school that has representatives wearing most T-shirts will have a $500 donation given to the school by BLAC, Inc. The participant who wears the oldest T-shirt will have $250 donated to their school. Everyone is encouraged to wear a T-shirt that represents their high school alma mater.
The evening will end with the featured artist – Tulsa jazz saxophonist Eldredge Jackson. Picnic baskets, blankets and lawn chairs are allowed. BLAC Inc. will sell beverages during the event. No beverages of any kind are allowed in the park – particularly alcoholic beverages. The public is invited, especially alumni members of all local high schools. Event tickets are $10 and are on sale now at the following locations in Oklahoma City: Capitol Square Station, KM66, Learning Tree Toy Store, Charlie’s Jazz, Rhythm and Blues Store and at BLAC Inc. offices. For more information, call (405) 524-3800.
Pianist/bandleader Ramsey Lewis will release “Songs From the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey” on Concord Records. The CD will contain a refined collection of 12 new originals that he composed over a period of two years.
The collection includes music from two commissioned world premiere performances at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Ill. Eight songs come from the 2007 ballet score “To Know Her,” written for the Joffrey Ballet Company and four pieces come from 2008’s “Muses and Amusements” suite performed with the Turtle Island Quartet.
“Songs From the Heart: Ramsey Plays Ramsey” features eight pieces with bassist Larry Gray and drummer Leon Joyce, and four piano solo performances. The project marks a turning point in Lewis’ storied career – now as a composer.
New York guitarist and composer Pete McCann will release his fourth solo album “Extra Mile” on Nineteen-Eight Records.
McCann is joined by alto saxophonist John O’Gallagher and Henry Hey on keyboards, as well as his long-time collaborators bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Mark Ferber. These ten originals demonstrate McCann’s deep roots in jazz while allowing him to branch off into the diverse sound-worlds he’s loved since his youth.
McCann, a native of Eau Claire, Wis., has worked with artists as diverse as Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, Lee Konitz, Kenny Garrett, Peter Erskine, Gary Thomas, Greg Osby, Brian Blade, and the Maria Schneider Orchestra.
Concord Music Group will celebrate the legacy of Lester Young with the August 4 release of “Lester Young: Centennial Celebration.”
The 10-track compilation is the latest installment in Concord’s ongoing Centennial Celebration series, which honors the 100th birthdays of some of the most iconic and influential figures in jazz history.
Compiled and produced by Nick Phillips, Concord Music Group’s vice president of Jazz and Catalog A&R, “Lester Young: Centennial Celebration” draws primarily from recordings made in December 1956, during Young’s week-long run at Olivia Davis’ Patio Lounge in Washington, D.C. Young was accompanied in the first seven tracks by the Bill Potts Trio, the house band at the Patio Lounge: pianist Bill Potts, bassist Norman Williams and drummer Jim Lucht.
Even during his lifetime, Young’s approach had become highly imitated in jazz by such luminaries as Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn and John Coltrane.
Trumpeter-bandleader and Mack Avenue Recording artist Sean Jones has not only performed at the Jazz Studio at the White House, hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama, in June, but Jones is preparing to release a new project “The Search Within” in August.
“The Search Within,” Jones’ fifth project, is described as “a journey inside my soul that’s taken place over the past 10 years.” He says “it’s an assessment of where I am in the present as well as how I’ve learned from my mistakes and triumphs as a way of looking into the future. This album goes very deep for me. It’s a spiritual and sonic journey for me.”
Jones and his quintet, consisting of Orrin Evans (piano), Brian Hogans (alto sax), Walter Smith (tenor sax), Luques Curtis (bass), and John Davis (drums) – will perform at a CD release event at Jazz Standard at 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11 and Wednesday, Aug. 12. For more information, go online to http://www.seanjonesmusic.com/.
Count Basie Orchestra presents “Swinging, Singing, Playing: The Count Basie Orchestra Salutes the Jazz Masters,” a 11-track CD that salutes jazz titans as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Freddie Hubbard and John Coltrane, in addition to such living legends as Bennett, Quincy Jones, Hank Jones, Frank Wess, Jon Hendricks, Curtis Fuller, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and others.
Produced by Mack Avenue’s executive vice president of A&R Al Pryor and CBO producer / conductor of special projects Dennis Wilson, Count Basie Orchestra achieves just what the CD title boasts: a swinging good time of extraordinary blues-fueled performances that hail various jazz legends. There are top-drawer performances by the big band and its all-star guest list that includes Jones, Wess, Hendricks, Fuller, Geri Allen, Nnenna Freelon, Janis Siegel, Butch Miles, Rufus Reid and, in a nod to the younger generation that embraces Basie music, sparkplug singer/pianist Jamie Cullum. The project will be released on Aug. 25 on Mack Records.
Vibraphonist-composer Stefon Harris is set to release his 7th album as a bandleader in August. The 10-track “Urbanus” picks up where 2004’s “Evolution” left off in that it features Harris’ ensemble Blackout that’s as versed in modern jazz as it is with rhythms, melodies and soundscapes associated with R&B, pop, hip-hop and funk.
Marc Cary complements his acoustic piano with Fender Rhodes and alto saxophonist Casey Benjamin lends his captivating vocoder work to the proceeding. Harris’ broadening textures and colors comes to play with his sensational woodwind and string arrangements on a few of the compositions. New Blackout bassist Buster Williams rounds out the group.
Harris and Blackout will be on tour to promote “Urbanus” (on Concord Jazz label) starting in September 2009.